March 27, 2002

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

LOS ANGELES, CA - After tallying the ballots of over 1,000 voters, the Wooden Award Committee today announced the 10-player John R. Wooden Award All-American team (see attached). The 26th annual Wooden Award will be presented to the college basketball player of the year on Sunday, April 7th during the Fox Sports Net telecast live from the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

The top five vote getters and their coaches will be invited to Los Angeles to participate in Wooden Award weekend activities, including serving as honorary coaches at the Inner-City Games Basketball Tournament and attending the live telecast and the Wooden Award Gala. The top five Wooden Award All-Americans, in alphabetical order, are: Dan Dickau, Gonzaga, Juan Dixon, Maryland, Drew Gooden, Kansas, Steve Logan, Cincinnati and Jason Williams, Duke.

Duke's Williams has been honored with an All-American team selection for the second time. He finished runner-up in last year's voting to teammate Shane Battier. Williams and Mike Dunleavy make Duke one of two teams (Maryland) with multiple Wooden All-Americans. On the shoulders of the Blue Devils and Terrapins, the ACC boasts four players on the squad. The Big East, WCC, Big 12, Big 10, Pac 10 and Conference USA each have one.

The All-American team is made up of four seniors (Lonny Baxter, Dickau, Dixon and Logan), four juniors (Dunleavy, Gooden, Luke Walton and Williams) and two sophomores (Caron Butler and Jared Jeffries). Four players (Baxter, Dixon, Gooden and Jeffries) have led their teams to this weekend's Final Four in Atlanta. Last year, Battier was the first player since UCLA's Ed O'Bannon in 1995 to win the Wooden Award and the National Championship in the same season.

The voting by more than 1,000 media members and college basketball experts was conducted over the past three weeks. Voters were asked to select 10 players from the 20 student-athletes listed on the official ballot, and rank them from 1 to 10. Because of the late due date, an element exclusive to the Wooden Award, voters were afforded the luxury of taking NCAA Tournament play into consideration. Voters also took into account a player's character and academic performance, essential components to an outstanding player in the eyes of the award's namesake.

Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball. It is bestowed upon the nation's best player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his university that he is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.0 GPA. Previous winners include such notables as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Tim Duncan, and Shane Battier.

The 2002 Award ceremony, which will include the presentation of the Wooden Award All-American team and the presentation of the Legends of Coaching Award to former Louisville coach, Denny Crum, will be held at the Los Angeles Athletic Club on Sunday, April 7th and will be televised live nationally on Fox Sports Net for the fifth straight year. Tickets for the black tie John R. Wooden Award Presentation Gala, to be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Biltmore Hotel following the televised announcement, are $150 and may be obtained by calling The Los Angeles Athletic Club at 213-630-5255.

For more information on the John R. Wooden Award, please contact [ formula ] PR at 310-372-2511 or via email at gold@formulapr.com, or visit www.woodenaward.com.

Players listed alphabetically